08-01-2012 @ 23:57

There is no doubt about it - too many people are on the BPTC when you consider the number of pupillages that are available on the other end. Well over 3,000 students have enrolled on the BPTC each year for the last few years. The BPTC qualification allows you to apply for pupillages for up to 5 years after you qualify. There are no more than 500 pupillages available each year, and often less. When you crunch these numbers, there are likely to be at least 10,000 applying for pupillages each year.

The BSB is right in its belief that something needs to be done about this. Too many students are spending too much money in the pursuit of a career for which the odds are too highly stacked against them. But is an aptitude test the right way of changing this? For me, the answer is a resounding no. I agree with @LegalAware (http://legal-aware.org/2011/12/will-the-new-proposed-bar-course-aptitude-test-be-fair-to-aspiring-barristers/) in asserting that it is woeful that despite British students being the most over-assessed in Europe, it hasn't yet been determined whether or not they are suitable for the Bar. Aside from this incompetency, I can't say I feel that the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Test is necessarily a fair measurement of an individual’s ability. Let's take the example facts and a question supplied by the BSB:

"Two hundred students in their early teens voluntarily attended a recent weekend student conference in a Midwestern city. At this conference, the topics of race relations and means of achieving lasting world peace were discussed, because these were the problems the students selected as being most vital in today’s world" 

The question is:

"As a group, the students who attended this conference showed a keener interest in broad social problems than do most other students in their early teens."

The student must rate this as either 'true', 'probably true', 'inadequate data', 'probably false', or 'false'. The 'correct' answer is 'probably true', because it is "common knowledge most people in their early teens do not show so much serious concern for broad social problems". Is it? That's certainly not something I would assume after being instructed to "draw my inferences from the facts". But more to the point, is this an accurate test of an aspiring barrister's ability? Most certainly not. Personally, I don't agree with any critical thinking tests. The best of a bad bunch are the SHL tests, at least there the answers are clearly 'true', 'cannot say', or 'false'. The 'probably' element adds uncertainty where there is no need for it. 

Regulation and stricter entry requirements than a II.2 and £16,000 are certainly necessary, but is imposing a test that can be coached the answer? If anything, this will only reduce social mobility - the test will be 'Can you afford to be coached to pass a critical thinking test, pay £67 to take the test, and then pay £16,000 to take the BPTC'? Maybe a more sensible technique would be interviews and consideration of degree classification and extra-curricular activities.

The BSB are in open consultation on the matter: http://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/about-bar-standards-board/consultations/open-consultations/bar-course-aptitude-test-(bcat)/

@LegalAware has written two fantastic articles on the issue.

http://legal-aware.org/2011/12/will-the-new-proposed-bar-course-aptitude-test-be-fair-to-aspiring-barristers/

&

http://legal-aware.org/2011/12/does-the-proposed-bar-course-aptitude-test-examine-the-right-skills/